When You Love
by HigherSilver
Summary: When you love, you get hurt. When you get hurt, you hate. When you hate, you try to forget. When you try to forget, you start missing. And when you start missing... you'll eventually fall in love again.


**Hola, las personas! This is my one-shot entry for humanusscriptor's contest, which I know a lot of people are complaining about, but it's just for fun, so whatevs. Anyway, Ferbella, as always. I've been wanting to write this for a while, and it was totally inspired by ****_xXxDaughteroftheKingxXx's _****awesome one-shot, ****_Just Friends_****, which I loved.**

**And, I OWN nothing.**

**Love, Silver**

* * *

_When you love, you get hurt. When you get hurt, you hate. When you hate, you try to forget. When you try to forget, you start missing. And when you start missing... you'll eventually fall in love again._

* * *

**When you love, you get hurt.**

Isabella was in love with him. She had been totally in love with him since the day she laid eyes on his face. Phineas Flynn. She could think about him all day long. He brought hearts to her eyes and butterflies to her stomach. Her secret, desperate goal in life was to become his wife. Over the years, Phineas had become her life.

But she had never told him she loved him. She kept it secret, rotting away inside her, hoping, even assuming, that maybe he would love her too.

"Ferb," Isabella asked her friend one day. "When do you think Phineas will come around… and… and… notice how he feels about me?"

The young Brit ran his hand over his chin, thinking. Not much had changed since they were kids. Phineas was still hopelessly unaware of Isabella's love for him. And Ferb wasn't sure why that was. She had made it super obvious that she loved him, but Phineas never took the bait.

"Maybe… it's time to confess to Phineas how you really feel." Ferb said to her.

"What! But what if he says no? Laughs in my face or runs away?" She exclaimed.

"What if he doesn't? What if he says yes?" Ferb said solemnly. "You'll never know unless you tell him."

"Ferb… I… I…" He stared at her, not saying anything. "You're right."

So Isabella was going to do it. Confront Phineas and tell him she was in love with him. She just needed one of those sacred moments alone with him. And one afternoon she got it.

"Phineas, I need to tell you something." He turned to look at her, expectantly. She took a deep breath, tightly closed her eyes, and said it. "I'm in love with you."

She opened her eyes, not really knowing what she was expecting. But what she heard almost brought her to tears.

"Ha, good one, Isabella." Phineas chuckled.

He was still happy and jovial, until he realized Isabella was two seconds away from bursting into tears. Phineas realized with horror that his childhood friend was, actually and truly, in love with him. And he didn't feel the same.

Isabella's tears were flying and her body was shaking as Phineas began to speak to her. About how much he cared for her, but he had never expected this to happen, and how he would always love her, but as a sister.

"Isabella?" He gently asked.

She couldn't take it anymore. She ran flying from the backyard, away from Phineas, only to crash into a warm body standing in front of the house. Ferb.

He looked down at her, probably for an explanation, but she couldn't say anything. She just couldn't. So she continued to cry, and he pulled her into a warm embrace, and she buried her face in his chest, trying desperately to make the hurt go away.

* * *

**When you get hurt, you hate.**

It had turned her bitter. She saw no hearts anymore. Butterflies were just dirty little insects. She didn't want to marry Phineas Flynn and she didn't love him. She hated him.

But she could never truly hate Phineas. He was a part of her. So she took it out on others. Her friends and family. No one could say anything as hurtful and nasty as Isabella could. Nobody else had that kind of fuel feeding his or her fire.

"Isabella, I'm sorry, that's it!" Gretchen declared. "We've always been your closest friends, but we're fed up with your attitude! How much abuse do your friends have to suffer through until you're happy?"

"I'll never be happy." Isabella said bitterly. "He'll never love me, and I'll never be happy."

"As long as you keep this much hatred in your heart, you're right." Gretchen remarked, as she left her old friend alone.

So she had lost the Fireside girls, but she hadn't lost her guy friends yet. They were tough enough to handle her, and she was tough enough to put on a happy face and go to the Flynn-Fletchers' to participate all summer long.

"He's happy! Phineas is the same happy-go-lucky boy he's always been!" Isabella cried to Buford, Baljeet, and Ferb.

"Of course he is. He didn't get his heart broken." Buford said. She flew at him like a harpy, ready to attack. "AAHH, get her off!"

Ferb and Baljeet managed to pry their fuming friend off of Buford. "I hate all of you!" she yelled.

"Isabella, Phineas is happy because he got over whatever happened between you two." Baljeet said.

"He didn't have to 'get over' anything, Baljeet! HE NEVER DOES." She declared. She turned to look at Ferb. "What about you? Are you going to say anything?"

"Maybe you need to get rid of all this hatred and try to get over it too." He whispered.

* * *

**When you hate, you try to forget.**

She forgot him. Or at least she tried. She threw out, deleted, eliminated, everything he had made her or that she had made about him. No more digital editing, no more diaries, no more daydreaming. And no more Phineas.

No more. She stopped going to his house. She stopped talking to him. She avoided him at school. She put him out of her mind.

It wasn't so bad. She hung around with Django and his friends. Friends that weren't close to Phineas anymore. But she was still pretty sad. She wasn't good at forgetting.

"I don't think I'm ever going to get over him, Django." Isabella said wistfully.

"You just need to forget him." Django said.

"But I'm doing a lousy job." She said.

"I know exactly how to make you forget, Iz." Another boy named Bill said. He reached around in his coat for something. "Here."

She gasped and retreated from him. "No. I'm not doing any of those drugs!"

"They make you forget." Bill said darkly.

"Django?" Isabella asked fearfully. "Do you…" He hung his head. "Oh no."

"Just try one joint, and you'll know what I mean." Bill said.

"No!" Isabella cried.

"Try it!" Bill said, almost forcefully.

"She said no."

Isabella turned to see who it was, although she already knew. How many other deep voiced British boys were running around Danville?

"Ferb." She whispered. He gestured for her to come over to him and she hurriedly went.

Ferb remained quiet, but the other boys almost immediately began to leave, almost like they were scared just being in his gaze.

"Thank you." Isabella said.

He stared her down, as if reprimanding her for ever hanging out with those kids in the first place.

"I had to!" She cried. "I had to, don't you see! The Fireside girls all hate me. And you guys… you guys… I just want to forget it all!" And she fled.

* * *

**When you try to forget, you start missing.**

She had cut herself out of the pictures, but she still liked looking at them. At the old projects she used to be a part of, and the new ones she would never be a part of. She still lived right on their street. She could see everything the boys made, every day, every week. And she missed it.

She didn't just miss the ideas, she missed the guys. She missed nerdy Baljeet, tough ol' Buford, and silent Ferb. She even missed chatty Phineas. Not because she missed her love, but because she missed her friend. She was finally over Phineas.

But it was too late. She wasn't their friend anymore. She was nothing. And now she spent her summer days crying to herself. And every time she thought about it, she wanted to cry more. Like right now, on her front steps. She was crying away to herself when she heard footsteps, and suddenly a handkerchief was in front of her.

"Oh, Ferb." She reached out and took it. "You always have great timing." She laughed gently.

He sat down next to her, and then she laid her head on his shoulder. At first, they were both completely quiet. Then, Ferb piped up.

"What's the matter, Isabella?"

She didn't know what to say, so she said the truth. "I miss you. I miss all of you."

He stood up, almost making her fall as she lost her headrest. And then he offered his hand to her. "So come with me."

"Oh no, Ferb, I can't, I…"

"You said you were missing us. So come to us. We miss you too." He said sweetly.

"You do?" She asked shyly.

He nodded, and she took his hand.

* * *

**And when you start missing… you'll eventually fall in love again.**

She was back in the backyard. She was back with her friends. She was happy again. Everything was back to normal. Everything felt the same as before.

It didn't make sense. Everything was the same as before, but it shouldn't be. She wasn't in love with Phineas anymore, so why did she still feel the same eagerness inside when she went to their house? Why did she still feel butterflies and see hearts when she wasn't in love with Phineas? Because she had fallen in love with Ferb.

Ferb, the boy who had always offered her everything from advice to a hanky, the boy who had been everything from her rock to her knight in shining armor. She knew she loved him. It was the first thing she had absolutely been certain of in her life.

But she was too scared to tell him. Too scared of what had happened before repeating itself. She couldn't lose everything all over again.

"You'll never know unless you tell him."

Wise words from someone she loved. And she was going to do it. She was going to tell him.

When she approached him, she was terrified. "Ferb, I… I…" She was stumbling over her words. She was wringing her hands together too. She glanced at him. He was… smiling?

Ferb suddenly pulled Isabella into his arms and kissed her. The sweetest, most passionate thing either of them had ever experienced. And he whispered in her ear, "I think I already knew."


End file.
